On the night of September 3, 2026, a daring attack occurred in Munich against a defense industry facility: unknown individuals threw Molotov cocktails at a construction site in front of the headquarters of the technology and defense conglomerate Rohde & Schwarz. The incident took place around midnight in the Berg-am-Laim district, where the company’s main building is located. According to the German tabloid Bild, an eyewitness observed several incendiary devices being thrown from a moving vehicle onto the premises and immediately called the police.
Police officers who arrived at the scene found that two of the three Molotov cocktails had ignited near construction containers located in front of the company’s main building. The resulting fire was quickly extinguished by the company’s security service and the responding police officers. The third Molotov cocktail failed to ignite and was defused by bomb disposal experts from the Bavarian Criminal Police Office (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt). No one was injured in the incident.
During the operational search activities, police detained two suspects in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene — at a gas station located on Innsbrucker Ring. According to radio station BR, those detained were a 28-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, both Bulgarian citizens. They are currently under investigation; the motives for their actions and the extent of their involvement in the attack are being established through interrogations and investigative measures.
The Bavarian Criminal Police Office has already stated that it is considering the possibility of a political motive behind the attack. The press service of the state criminal investigation agency emphasized that the incident is being classified as an attempted politically motivated act of sabotage against a defense sector enterprise. A representative of the agency noted that all possible versions are currently being investigated, including possible links between the detainees and extremist or radical groups, but specific information about the suspects’ motives is not yet being disclosed.
Rohde & Schwarz is one of the key suppliers of high-tech equipment for the German army (Bundeswehr) and other German defense structures. The company specializes in the development and production of communication systems, radar complexes, equipment for drone detection and suppression, as well as other dual-use technologies. In recent months, Munich has become an important center of the European defense industry: in addition to Rohde & Schwarz, the city hosts offices and production facilities of companies such as drone manufacturer Helsing, Quantum Systems, and Tytan Technologies.
Earlier in September, attempts to set fire to transformer substations in Brandenburg and the Cologne area were recorded, and in August there was an incident involving drones at a German airport, which Berlin and its allies link to the activities of Russian intelligence services. Against this backdrop, the attack on Rohde & Schwarz is causing particular concern among law enforcement agencies, who fear an escalation of sabotage activities against defense complex facilities.
Currently, the investigation is being conducted by the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), which has taken over the coordination of all investigative actions. Police continue to verify possible connections between the detainees and radical groups, as well as to study their movements and contacts leading up to the attack. Investigators do not rule out that the incident may have been part of a broader campaign targeting enterprises of the German defense-industrial complex and its allies.
